Your Career in Animation

Although I never set out to be an author, it almost seems I was destined to write this audiobook. Unlike many of my peers in the animation industry, I grew up knowing that one could make a living in commercial art. My father, Bob Levy, achieved remarkable success in advertising. In the span of four decades, his career ran the gamut from creative vice president of Benton and Bowles to creative director at Gray Advertising, Boesel, Jacobs, Kenyon & Eckhart, and J. Walter Thompson. The demands of a high-profile career in advertising would be enough to zap anyone's strength, but for my father, that was just his day job. At night, his second identity as a freelancer would begin. From his home office, he often worked until 2 a.m., creating logos, designs, and illustrations for high-profile clients including Pfizer and Procter & Gamble. Growing up in suburban Long Island, New York, most of my friends bonded with their dads over a shared interest in sports. With both of us hopelessly non-athletic, my dad and I bonded over the world of commercial art. Our nightly ritual went like this. Dad came home around 8 p.m. I would follow him upstairs, where he would take his shoes off to relax a moment before supper. This was when I would get a vivid debriefing of the day's events at the workplace. The stories unfolded like mini-radio plays, with my dad providing all the voices, the most interesting being his own. I'm not sure why he did this. Perhaps he was looking for closure or clarity that can sometimes only come by talking about problems. For a while, I was probably too young to offer much back. But these talks taught me at a tender age the meaning of words like client, rep, art director, copy editor, traffic person, account person, and portfolio. I first suspected my dad was giving me a unique education when the distinguished animator and illustrator, Lee J. Ames, came to lecture at my school. I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time. More than a few eyebrows were raised when I asked if Lee sent out samples of his art in a portfolio to try to get new clients. Lee laughed and said, I must be a budding artist to have such a question. Every night for nearly 20 years, my dad was giving me valuable lessons on how to survive and thrive in the business. In return, I don't think my dad could have asked for a more enthusiastic pupil. I got caught up in the drama of each office story and I would eagerly await the next installment, the way some people anticipate the daytime soaps. As successful and brilliant as my dad was, he never told stories to try to present himself in the best possible light. These were warts and all stories. There were great mistakes, cataclysmic defeats, and long torturous times of stress and misery. On the other end of the spectrum were avalanches of creative inspiration, promotions, and other great victories in the workplace.